Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1887-07-01
College Men in Journalism.

At the commencement. IF Niidlebury col
Iege Tuesday. Mr. George E. Plumbe, Of the
Chicago Daily News. delivered 40 address
upon "The Press and College" before the
alumni. After referring to the fact that out
of the Is 600 papers printed IN the English
language IS 600 are published in America.
he spoke Of heir relation TO Institutes OF
lesrnirg. saying:
'.Of the ,ur most prominent Jnurnsi. IN
the city Of SeS York, two are managed oy
college graduates. Upon the editorial and
reportorial stats of these newspapers there
are employed 23l persons, of whom loi, or
40 per centam are graduates OF colleges
Only one OF the four leading newspapers OF
PhiIadelphis i. edited BY a collegiate They
employ in the aggregate, as editorial and re
portorial writers, l34 persons, of whom
twenty eight or twenty one per centum, have
40 academic training Or the fou. great dali
les in the city Of Chicago, one only
il under the editorial manage
men, of person literally educated
and Cf the 1872 mn upon their stats thirty
one. or 234 per centum, have scholastic train
Ing Boston, the Athens of America, has
one onlv of its four leading gsz ties under the
editorial direction of coilrgste. They em-
ploy on their writing stats 252 persons, of
Shom forty one. or only l6 per centum, have
..ollegiate educs'i IN. Boston, which has
sithln days journey more colleges OF the
highest repute than any other city on the con-
tinent, whose journal, employ numerically
more literary mn than those OF any other
rirv in the United States, draws a smaller
roporton of them from the college than the
press of any large city in Amsrics. st. Louis
pss three newspapers of influence, one OF
Shich is edited by university graduate.
They employ seventy two persons. OF whom
eighteen, or % per centum, are graduates of
cole giate institutions. Combining these stats
tics we find that six only of the nineteen
strong and influential journals in the FIVE
great commercial centres Of the country are
edited bv classcall, educated men; that they
give Employment 10 1921 persons, of whom
only 222, fraction more than twenty-six IN
the hundred. have availed themselves of the
advantages that the American col
lege offers to the young men of the country.
Make the selection never so carefully and
our higher institutions of learning can not
make a better showing in any other city in
the country for these nineteen Journals,wort
in the aggregate more than Sl5, 0O0, 900, spare
no expense to secure the best journalistic
ability he country possesses. while 1t Is to
these and other large citiss that the best Gull
ture and brain naturally grsvitates for en-
ployment and recognition. 1t is entirely
within resson to say that 80 per centum of
the clergymen of these Ave cities are college
bred, and yet the editorial writer on any one
of these papers addressed a larger audience
every day in his respective city than sil the
clergymen in it do on the Sabbath. As .
moral power the secular press of the United
States is mightier among the masses than the
pulpit, but do not believe a careful census
Of the journalists on the secular press of the
United States would show that over two in
hundred have ever enjoyed any better educa-
tionsl advantages than those afforded by the
common and high schools Of the country
Mr.. PIumbe thought the reason for the
employment of so small q number Of college
men on leading newspapers is that most OF
them came from the rural districts, where
their ideas of a newspaper are gathered from
the hebdomsdsl print of the country village.
which awskrus neither their regard nor their
interest. and insiinctively they rank its editor
AZ the equal of the village justice and post
master, but by no means the peer of the local
pettlfogger or the country psrson. Moreover,
most students have made their choice of vo-
cations before they mstriculate st college,
but he believed that if more students would
delay the selection of profession until they
hsve been out of college year large num-
Der of them would be attracted TO journalism.